17-letter words containing a, u, b
- republic of palau — a republic comprising a group of islands in the W Pacific, in the W Caroline Islands; administratively part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands 1947–87; entered into an agreement of free association with the US (1980); became fully independent in 1994. Chief island: Babelthuap. Capital: Ngerulmud on Babelthuap (functions moved from Koror in 2006). Pop: 21 108 (2013 est). Area: 476 sq km (184 sq miles)
- republic-of-china — People's Republic of, a country in E Asia. 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Capital: Beijing.
- rub the wrong way — to subject the surface of (a thing or person) to pressure and friction, as in cleaning, smoothing, polishing, coating, massaging, or soothing: to rub a table top with wax polish; to rub the entire back area.
- rubarth's disease — a common, rapidly progressing viral hepatitis of dogs and other carnivores, often confused with canine distemper.
- rubber plantation — an estate in a tropical country where rubber trees are grown on a large scale
- rubber-base paint — latex paint.
- rubberman disease — Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
- russell, bertrand — Bertrand Russell
- safety in numbers — If you say that there is safety in numbers, you mean that you are safer doing something if there are a lot of people doing it rather than doing it alone.
- saint bonaventure — Saint ("the Seraphic Doctor") 1221–74, Italian scholastic theologian.
- sanctions-busting — the deliberate disregarding of sanctions that are in force against a state, organization, etc
- saxe-coburg-gotha — a member of the present British royal family, from the establishment of the house in 1901 until 1917 when the family name was changed to Windsor.
- say the unsayable — to express an opinion thought to be too controversial to mention
- shubra al khaymah — a city in NE Egypt, a Cairo suburb.
- small waved umber — a brownish geometrid moth, Horisme vitalbata, that is cryptically marked to merge with tree bark
- sodium bichromate — a red or orange crystalline, water-soluble solid, Na 2 Cr 2 O 7 ⋅2H 2 O, used as an oxidizing agent in the manufacture of dyes and inks, as a corrosion inhibitor, a mordant, a laboratory reagent, in the tanning of leather, and in electroplating.
- sodium pyroborate — borax1 .
- southeast by east — a point on the compass 11°15′ east of southeast. Abbreviation: SEbE.
- spiritual bouquet — the spiritual presentation of a good work to another person.
- square and rabbet — annulet (def 1).
- squash vine borer — the larva of a clearwing moth, Melittia satyriniformis, that bores into the stems of squash and related plants.
- squaw huckleberry — deerberry.
- state the obvious — point out sth already evident
- statue of liberty — a large copper statue, on Liberty Island, in New York harbor, depicting a woman holding a burning torch: designed by F. A. Bartholdi and presented to the U.S. by France; unveiled 1886.
- subclavian artery — either of a pair of arteries, one on each side of the body, that carry the main supply of blood to the arms.
- subclavian groove — either of two grooves in the first rib, one for the main artery (subclavian artery) and the other for the main vein (subclavian vein) of the arm
- subject catalogue — a catalogue with entries arranged by subject in a classified sequence
- subordinated debt — a debt that an unsecured creditor can only claim, in the event of a liquidation, after the claims of secured creditors have been paid
- subscription rate — the price charged for a subscription
- subsidiary ledger — (in accounting) a ledger containing a group of detailed and related accounts the total of which is summarized in the control account.
- substantive right — a right, as life, liberty, or property, recognized for its own sake and as part of the natural legal order of society.
- subtractive color — cyan, yellow, or magenta, as used in the subtractive process of color photography.
- sum and substance — main idea, gist, or point: the sum and substance of an argument.
- sunbury-on-thames — a town in SE England, in N Surrey. Pop: 27 415 (2001)
- sunday observance — the fact of keeping Sunday as a special day when people go to church
- supervisory board — a board of management of which nonmanagerial workers are members, having supervisory powers over some aspects of management decision-making
- surrender to bail — to present oneself at court at the appointed time after having been on bail
- symbolic language — a specialized language dependent upon the use of symbols for communication and created for the purpose of achieving greater exactitude, as in symbolic logic or mathematics.
- tanenbaum, andrew — Andrew Tanenbaum
- tapestry brussels — a carpet made with three-ply or four-ply worsted yarn drawn up in uncut loops to form a pattern over the entire surface (body Brussels) or made of worsted or woolen yarns on which a pattern is printed (tapestry Brussels)
- temporomandibular — of, relating to, or situated near the hinge joint formed by the lower jaw and the temporal bone of the skull.
- the black country — the formerly heavily industrialized region of central England, northwest of Birmingham
- the buckeye state — a nickname for Ohio
- the carboniferous — the Carboniferous period or rock system
- thread-legged bug — any of certain insects of the family Reduviidae, characterized by an elongated, slender body and long frail legs, the front pair of which are raptorial.
- thyestean banquet — a banquet at which human flesh is served
- to eat humble pie — If you eat humble pie, you speak or behave in a way which tells people that you admit you were wrong about something.
- torricellian tube — a vertical glass tube partly evacuated and partly filled with mercury, the height of which is used as a measure of atmospheric pressure
- trouble came back — (jargon) (TCB) An IBM term for an intermittent or difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to neglect or shotgun debugging. Compare heisenbug.
- tubercle bacillus — the bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, causing tuberculosis.